Archive for October, 2011
Performing Arts as Transformation in Bangu
Oct 28th
It’s 4 o’clock on a Thursday afternoon, and a mix of hip hop and traditional Brazilian rhythms blare through the second floor windows of the Caixa de Surpresa Cultural Center in Vila Aliança, a favela in Bangu, Rio’s West Zone. Dance students rehearse choreographies and freestyle between songs. Meanwhile, in the first floor theatre, young actors review sketches.
Director and founder Waldemir Correia, with his unexpected energy and youthfulness, is a constant presence in all spaces at the Cultural Center, kidding in the courtyard with afternoon ping pong players, shouting reminders about manners and upcoming soccer matches in the hallway, and playfully More >
Angolans Choose Brazil
Oct 25th
Increasing numbers of people leaving Africa, and particularly Angolans, are choosing Brazil over traditional destinations in Europe and North America.
Around noon on Saturdays, a small group of African immigrants gather at the parks in Flamengo to play soccer and have a churrasco. Almost all of the young men who show up are from Angola, but some in the group are from Ivory Coast, Cameroon, and Guinea Bissau and the conversations switch between Portuguese and French. Most have lived in Brazil for a number of years, and can now comfortably call Rio home. Though most live farther north in the Complexo More >
Maré Community Debates Impact of Mega Events on the City
Oct 19th
Original Portuguese article published in Observatório de Favelas.
On Friday September 30th, the NGO REDES de Desenvolvimento da Maré (Development Networks for Maré), in partnership with ActionAid and Observatório de Favelas (Favelas Observatory), set up the seminar “The city of and for mega sporting events: Walls, evictions and urban make-up.” The event brought together, at the Lona Cultural Herbert Vianna, in the Maré Favela, 250 people, a mix of residents, non-residents, thinkers and political activists, all interested in the debate about the current conjuncture of the city pre-World Cup and Olympics.
The participants discussed the potential and probable impacts that the huge sporting events of 2014 More >
#OccupyRio Begins: “This is Where It’s At!”
Oct 17th
As it began, Occupy Rio looked set to follow an all-too-predictable pattern amongst leftist movements: the descent into partisan bickering. A small group had gathered at Cinelândia on a gray and rainy afternoon in Rio, answering Spain’s Indignados’ call for worldwide protests on October 15, but it was not long before the arguments started. At issue were the political party banners carried by some of the protesters and fears that any sort of connection to a political party went against the true anti-system philosophy of the original occupy movements. Intense arguments soon divided the group in two, and the few More >
Deep Ecology in Alemão: Society, Food and the Environment
Oct 16th
Luiz Carlos Matos Marins, better known as Luiz Poeta (“Luiz the Poet”), founder of the project Verdejar, works in the neighborhood of Engenho da Rainha in the North Zone of Rio de Janeiro. Today, on this Blog Action Day 2012, the theme of which is FOOD, we chose to interview and publish this story in recognition of the work of the incomparable Luiz Poeta.
The history of his project, Verdejar, is replete with struggles, partnerships, events and hard work – all with the goal of reclaiming Serra da Misericórdia (the largest section of the Atlantic Rainforest in the North Zone of Rio), employing More >
